Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Distributed Geocomputation for Modeling the Hydrology of the Black Sea Watershed

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Book cover Environmental Security in Watersheds: The Sea of Azov

Abstract

The surface of the Black Sea watershed amounts to about 2 mil. km2 with a population of 160 mil. Inhabitants over 25 countries. In light of the current and forthcoming climate, land cover and population changes in this region, it is becoming extremely important to better understand how the quantity and quality of waters will vary in the catchment over the coming decades. To model the hydrology of this catchment, three steps are needed: (1) a large transnational data collection effort, (2) adequate management and sharing processes of the environmental data in a dedicated Spatial Data Infrastructure, and (3) distributed computing in order to allow running a high-resolution model. The EU/FP7 enviroGRIDS project (running 2009–2013) is addressing these steps with a 30-partner consortium mainly located in the Black Sea region. In this paper we are discussing how enviroGRIDS is approaching the various data-related challenges of the project. We particularly address the important issue of sharing data through international initiative such as GEOSS, the specificity of the hydrological modeling tool SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool), and the technical requirement for using Grid computing infrastructures to optimize computationally-intensive simulations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Abbaspour KC, Yang J, Maximov I, Siber R, Bogner K, Mieleitner J, Zobrist J, Srinivasan R (2007) Spatially-distributed modelling of hydrology and water quality in the pre-alpine/alpine Thur watershed using SWAT. J Hydrol 333:413–430

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Advanced Resource Connector (ARC) (2011) http://www.nordugrid.org/middleware

  3. Arnold J, Srinivasan R, Muttiah R, Williams J (1998) Large area hydrologic modeling and assessment – part 1: model development. J Am Water Resour Assoc 34(1):73–89

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Arnold JG, Srinivasan R, Muttiah RS, Allen PM (1999) Continental scale simulation of the hydrologic balance. J Am Water Resour Assoc 35:1037–1051

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Bacu V, Mihon D, Rodila D, Stefanut T, Gorgan D (2011) Grid based architectural components for SWAT model calibration. In: Proceedings of the 2011 international conference on High Performance Computing and Simulation (HPCS 2011), pp. 193–199, Istanbul, Turkey, July 4–8, 2011

    Google Scholar 

  6. Béjar R, Latre MA, Nogueras-Iso J, Muro-Medrano PR, Zarazaga-Soria FJ (2009) Systems of systems as a conceptual framework for spatial data infrastructures. Int J Spat Data Infrastruct Res 4:201–217

    Google Scholar 

  7. Bernard L, Craglia M (2005) SDI: from spatial data infrastructure to service driven infrastructure. Workshop on cross-learning on Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) and Information Infrastructures (II), Twente

    Google Scholar 

  8. Borysova O, Kondakov A, Paleari S, Rautalahti-Miettinen E, Stolberg F, Daler D (2005) Eutrophication in the Black Sea region; Impact assessment and Causal chain analysis. University of Kalmar, Kalmar

    Google Scholar 

  9. CEC (2000) Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for the community action in the field of water policy. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2000:327:0001:0072:EN:PDF

  10. Charvat K, Kafka S, Splichal M, Alberts M, Martinsone A, Horak P, Vlk M, Bruins P (2008) URM concept for sharing information inside of communities, WCCA 2008, Tokyo

    Google Scholar 

  11. Coleman DJ, McLaughlin JD, Nichols S (1997) Building a spatial data infrastructure. In: 64th permanent congress meeting of the Fédération Internationale des Géomètres (FIG), Singapore, p 11

    Google Scholar 

  12. dCache project (2011) http://www.dcache.org/

  13. Enabling Grids for E-sciencE project (EGEE) (2010) http://www.eu-egee.org/

  14. European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) (2011) http://www.egi.eu/

  15. European Middleware Initiative (EMI) (2011) http://www.eu-emi.eu/

  16. Foster I, Kesselman C (1999) The grid: blueprint for a new computing infrastructure. In: Foster I, Kesselman C (eds) Globus: a toolkit-based grid architecture. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, pp 259–278

    Google Scholar 

  17. Gassman PW, Reyes MR, Green CH, Arnold JG (2007) The soil and water assessment tool: historical development, applications, and future research directions. Trans Am Soc Agric Biol Eng 50(4):1211–1250

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. GEO Secretariat (2005) Global earth observation system of systems 10-year implementation plan reference document. GEO, Geneva. http://www.earthobservations.org/documents/10-Year%20Plan%20Reference%20Document.pdf

  19. GEO Secretariat (2007) The full picture. GEO, Geneva. http://www.earthobservations.org/documents/fullpicture/fp_ps_p136_we_cl.pdf

  20. GEO Secretariat (2007) Strategic guidance for current and potential contributors to GEOSS. GEO, Geneva. http://www.earthobservations.org/documents/portal/25_Strategic%20Guidance%20Document.pdf

  21. GEO Secretariat (2007) Tactical guidance for current and potential contributors to GEOSS. GEO, Geneva. http://www.earthobservations.org/documents/portal/24_Tactical%20Guidance%20for%20current%20and%20potential%20contributors%20to%20GEOSS.pdf

  22. Gewin V (2011) Social media: self-reflection, online. Nature 471(7340):667–669

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Giuliani G, Ray N, Lehmann A (2011) Grid-enabled Spatial Data Infrastructure for environmental sciences: challenges and opportunities. Future Gener Comput Syst 27(3):292–303. doi:10.1016/j.future.2010.09.011

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Giuliani G, Ray N, Schwarzer S, De Bono A, Peduzzi P, Dao H, Van Woerden J, Witt R, Beniston M, Lehmann A (2011) Sharing environmental data through GEOSS. Int J Appl Geospat Res 2(1):1–17. doi:10.4018/jagr.2011010101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Giuliani G, Nativi S, Lehmann A, Ray N (in review) WPS mediation: an approach to process geospatial data on different computing backends. Comput Geosci

    Google Scholar 

  26. Gore A (1998) The digital earth: understanding our planet in the 21st century. Photogramm Eng Remote Sens 65(5):528–530

    Google Scholar 

  27. Gorgan D, Bacu B, Rodila D, Pop P, Petcu D (2010) Experiments on ESIP – environment oriented satellite data processing platform. Earth Sci Inform J 3(4):297–308, ISSN: 1865–0473

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Gosain AK, Rao S, Basuray D (2006) Climate change impact assessment on hydrology of Indian River basins. Curr Sci 90:346–353

    Google Scholar 

  29. IPCC (2007) Climate change 2007: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  30. IPCC (2007) Climate change 2007: mitigation of climate change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  31. Kaika M (2003) The water framework directive: a new directive for a changing social, political and economic European framework. Eur Plan Stud 11(3)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Lecca G, Petitdidier M, Hluchy L, Ivanovic M, Kussul N, Ray N, Thieron V (2011) Grid computing technology for hydrological applications. J Hydrol 403:186–199. doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2011.04.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Lightweight Middleware for Grid Computing (gLite) (2011) http://glite.cern.ch/

  34. Manca S, Soru C, Cau P, Meloni G, Fiori M (2009) A multi model and multiscale, GIS oriented Web framework based on the SWAT model to face issues of water and soil resource vulnerability. In: Presentation at the 5th International SWAT Conference, August 3–7, Boulder, Colorado, USA

    Google Scholar 

  35. Mansourian A, Rajabifard A, Valadan Zoej MJ, Williams D (2004) SDI for disaster management to support sustainable development. Paper presented at the Map Asia, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

  36. Masser I (2005) The future of spatial data infrastructures. ISPRS Workshop on service and application of spatial data infrastructure, Hangzhou

    Google Scholar 

  37. Masser I (2005) GIS worlds: creating spatial data infrastructures. ESRI Press, Redlands

    Google Scholar 

  38. Masser I (2007) Building European spatial data infrastructure. ESRI Press, Redlands

    Google Scholar 

  39. Nativi S, Bigagli L (2009) Discovery, mediation, and access services for earth observation data. IEEE J Sel Top Appl Earth Obs Remote Sens 2(4):233–240. doi:10.1109/jstars.2009.2028584

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Nebert DD (2005) Developing spatial data infrastructure: the SDI cookbook. GSDI Association, Chapel Hill. http://memberservices.gsdi.org/files/?artifact_id=655

  41. Neitsch SL, Arnold JG, Kiniry J, Williams JR (2005) Soil and water assessment tool theoretical documentation, version 2005. Grassland, Soil and Water Research Labratory, Agricultural Research Service and Blackland Research Center, Texas Agricultural Research Station, Temple, Texas

    Google Scholar 

  42. Open Geospatial Consortium (2004) The havoc of non-interoperability. OGC, White Paper, http://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=5097

  43. Open Geospatial Consortium (2008) OGC reference model. OGC http://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=31112

  44. PCU (1999) Strategic action plan for the Danube River basin 1995–2005 – Revision 1999. Danube Pollution Reduction Programme, Programme Co-ordination Unit, Vienna

    Google Scholar 

  45. Rajabifard A, Williamson IP (2001) Spatial data infrastructures: concept, SDI hierarchy and future directions. In: Geomatics’80, Tehran, Iran

    Google Scholar 

  46. Schuol J, Abbaspour KC, Yang H, Srinivasan R, Zehnder AJB (2008) Modelling blue and green water availability in Africa. Water Resour Res 44, W07406:1–18

    Google Scholar 

  47. Uniform Interface to Computing Resources (UNICORE) (2011) http://www.unicore.eu/

  48. Vandenbroucke D (2010) Spatial data infrastructures in Europe: state of play spring 2010. K.U. Leuven, Leuven. http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/reports/stateofplay2009/INSPIRE%20NSDI%20SoP%20-%20Summary%20Report%202010%20-%20v4%204.pdf

  49. Whittaker G (2004) Use of a Beowulf cluster for estimation of risk using SWAT. Agron J 96(5):1495–1497

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) (2011) http://lcg.web.cern.ch/LCG/

  51. WWF (2008) Greening the Black Sea synergy. EU Regional Office, Brussels

    Google Scholar 

  52. Yalew SG, van Griensven A, Ray N, Betrie GD, Kokoszkiewicz L (in review) Parallel computing of a large scale SWAT model. Environ Model Softw

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Sciences, Climatic Change and Climate Impacts, enviroSPACE Lab., University of Geneva, Battelle – Building D, 7 route de Drize, CH-1227, Carouge, Switzerland

    Nicolas Ray, Gregory Giuliani & Anthony Lehmann

  2. Division of Early Warning and Assessment, Global Resource Information Database – Europe, United Nations Environment Programme, Châtelaine, Switzerland

    Nicolas Ray, Gregory Giuliani & Anthony Lehmann

  3. Forel Institute, University of Geneva, Versoix, Switzerland

    Nicolas Ray, Gregory Giuliani & Anthony Lehmann

  4. Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Dorian Gorgan

Authors
  1. Nicolas Ray
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gregory Giuliani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Dorian Gorgan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Anthony Lehmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicolas Ray .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Modelling Laboratory, Central European University, Nador ut. 9, Budapest, 1051, Hungary

    Viktor Lagutov

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this paper

Cite this paper

Ray, N., Giuliani, G., Gorgan, D., Lehmann, A. (2012). Distributed Geocomputation for Modeling the Hydrology of the Black Sea Watershed. In: Lagutov, V. (eds) Environmental Security in Watersheds: The Sea of Azov. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2460-0_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation